To access the database, a group of the remaining employees gathered together, and in what must have been an unbearably wrenching session, recalled everything they knew about their colleagues: the names of their children; where they went on holidays; what foods they liked; even their personal idiosyncrasies. And they managed to guess the passwords.

All their mission-critical data was stored on two sets of live servers? I didn't think insurance companies allowed that anymore. Doesn't somebody have to take a big fat tape backup and stick it in a safety-deposit box once in a while?